Lyrics

[MBE]

Paul's given Ringo a ton of money over the years particularly during his cocaine and alcohol phase.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Never knew Macca was a cokehead. 

[endofposts]

Never knew Macca was a cokehead. 

Didn't he mean he gave Ringo a ton of money during Ringo's coke phase?  Ringo was notorious for the nose candy, and both he and Barbara Bach have been through rehab.

[MBE]

I meant Ringo. Paul has said he did cocaine in 67-8 or so but basically stopped around 69.

[matt-zeus]

I thought Macca was back on the coke around the mid 70s? Some of the filler on those albums sure sounds like it!

[CosmicDancer]

If youve ever heard the tapes of the jam session with John, Paul, Stevie Wonder, and someone else whom I can't recall right now from John's "lost weekend" period, you'd know there was a bit of coke making the rounds.  Doesn't mean Paul was using, but you can audibly hear John ask Stevie if he wants a "toot".  Pretty terrible music being made but it's a fun thing to have for historical reasons.

[PMcC]

H. Nilsson was the somebody else. And you're right, the music is trash. All these great musicians, and they couldn't play 3 chords together and make it work.  A shame, since that would be the only time that Lennon-McCartney were making music after the break-up (with tape rolling, anyway)

[CosmicDancer]

I figured it was Nilsson being that he was John's main partner in crime during the lost weekend, but I wasn't quite sure.  Thanks for clearing that up!

[MBE]

I am sure Paul took an occasional snort in the 70's  but I think it was only a regular thing in the late 60's. Those tapes ARE bad.

[Guy]

After giving the new compilation "The warmth of the sun" a lot of spins lately I started wondering about the lyrics and specifically about who wrote them. Judging from the speculative discussing on this board in this thread and others I don't think there ever has been any proper documentation about Mike and Brian writing together. That is, apart from a couple of exceptions. In more than a couple of publications there is the story about Brian and Mike's collaboration on (the song) "The Warmth of the sun" around the time of JFK's assassination. Or how Mike wrote the hookline for "Good vibrations" in a cab on his way to th studio. For years now almost everything I've read about Mike's contributions or his lawsuit in 1992 (?) has been extremely skeptical. The example of the last two lines in "Wouldn't it be nice" that according to Mike were his contribution that earned him a songwriting credit has also been used a lot to discredit him.

I would like to know if there ever has been anything written about Brian and Mike's writing together, because I firmly believe that they did write together and that Mike's claim in the early '90's is, at least to a certain extent, true.

In the book "Catch a wave" by Peter Ames Carlin he writes that Mike's lawsuit claim was for 72 songs. Earlier in this thread Andrew G. Doe lists 30 songs for which Mike gained credit. Does that mean he didn't for the others? What's the correct number?

[Andrew G. Doe]

The number of BB tracks which now have Mike's name yet didn't prior to the lawsuit is either 34 or 35. Those were the songs submitted, and he got retrospective credit - and points - for all of them.

Interestingly, he's claimed to have had a hand in "Surfin' USA", but that wasn't used in the suit.

[Guy]

Excellent, thanks.

Andrew, in that same list of songs you mention the coincidence that quite a lot of the 34 or 35 songs Mike claimed credit for were hits. Would you say that makes it more unconvincing that he actually contributed to them? Maybe his name was left off back in the day by Murry just because of that reason; meaning that Brian would get all of the earnings?

Ah, here we are:

409 [comp staple]
Chug-A-Lug
Farmer's Daughter
Noble Surfer
Finders Keepers
Catch A Wave [comp staple]
Hawaii
Be True To Your School [hit/comp staple]
I Get Around [hit/comp staple]
All Summer Long [comp staple]
Wendy [hit/comp staple]
Do You Remember ?
Drive-In
Don't Back Down
Little Honda  [hit/comp staple]
Little St. Nick  [hit/comp staple]
The Man With All The Toys  [hit/comp staple]
Santa's Beard
Merry Christmas, Baby
Good To My Baby [comp staple]
Don't Hurt My Little Sister
When I Grow Up (To Be A Man) [hit/comp staple]
Help Me, R(h)onda [hit/comp staple]
Dance, Dance, Dance [hit/comp staple]
Kiss Me, Baby
She Knows Me Too Well
In The Back Of My Mind
The Girl From New York City
Amusement Parks USA
Salt Lake City
California Girls [hit/comp staple]
Let Him Run Wild [comp staple] (See below)
You're So Good To Me [comp staple]
Wouldn't It Be Nice [hit/comp staple]
I Know There's An Answer

Doesn't the credit for "Let him run wild" read B.Wilson? In that case teh list would be 34 songs

[Andrew G. Doe]

So Murry knew in advance which songs would be hits or future compilation staples ? 

The credit for "LHRW" on TWOTS reads "Brian Wilson-Mike Love".

[Bicyclerider]

If Mike wrote (or rewrote) the lyrics for I Know There's an Answer - why did Terry Sachen get his name on it?  I mean, if you're going to give up song publishing money, why give it to T. Sachen and not the person who actually rewrote the lyrics?  What was his contribution?

I've wondered about Dennis not getting credit for songwriting on the early surfing songs like Surfin' and Surfin' Safari - besides having the idea to write a song about surfing, he contributed surfing terminology/words and therefor lyrics to the songs - certainly as much a contribution as the two lines Mike added to Woudn't It Be Nice.  And when asked who wrote Surfin' he says (on In the Beginning) "we all did."  I'm not surprised Dennis wouldn't worry too much about whether or not he got credit, but shouldn't he have?

[Andrew G. Doe]

Do an A-B on "Ego" and "Answer" - the lyrical difference are minor compared with, say Asher's scratch "GV" lyric and Mike's final ones. Terry gets his rightful credit by writing the bulk of the 'final' lyric.

Why wasn't Jimmy Bowlles given his due credit for supplying the list of surfin' spots for "Surfin' USA" ?

[Cam Mott]

Mike has said he wasn't aware of his rights in regard to his credit on the songs until he testified for Brian in Wison v. Irving Music.

I'm not even sure about who Mike sued, there was a suit of Love v. Irving Music with Brian as one of 6 to 8 co-defendants, was there another suit only between Love and Wilson or was certain damages claimed against individual co-defendants? Irving held the then current publishing but Brian was the co-author and in collusion as the offending original co-publisher. Anyway, an eyewitness claims Mike didn't specify damages against Brian, the jury presumably decided what was due credit and how much damage Mike was due, but tried to settle with Brian [or someone] for a pittance.

[Guy]

So Murry knew in advance which songs would be hits or future compilation staples ? 

The credit for "LHRW" on TWOTS reads "Brian Wilson-Mike Love".

No, he knew in advance which songs would become singles.

Re: LHRW: I stand corrected.

[Amy B.]

The thing about some of these songs is that they sound like Brian's thoughts. I mean, "In the Back of My Mind?" It sounds like Brian's diary. Also PLMW and She Knows Me Too Well.

If Mike DID write those lyrics, could it have been with Brian's input, just as Brian had input into the concepts expressed in Tony Asher's Pet Sounds lyrics?

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Even though I have never seen Surfin USA give any credit to Mike, I have always assumed that he had a big hand in the lyrics. It seems like something that he would right. That is assuming that he wrote all (most) of the lyrics to songs like Fun Fun Fun, I Get Around, California Girls, etc.

[bellagio]

I think Mike, like Asher, was good at understanding the feeling BW was trying to convey in a song. I doubt Mike wrote EVERY word, I'm sure Brian had suggestions, etc. (I wonder who wrote the original Lyric for PLMW). But Mike, like a lot of lyricists, seems to be the kind of writer who waits until the last second to finish his words, and maybe that's why some BB songs don't have names when BW is tracking them. But I beleive Mike wrote those songs he claims. There isn't anything so amazing that it would be unbeleivable.